GPS Tracking Case Heard by 3rd Circuit

In October, a panel of three judges unanimously agreed that a GPS tracking device on a vehicle put in place by police would be considered a search under the Fourth Amendment. However, the panel split 2-1 when deciding if evidence gathered was admissible in court under the good-faith exception, which would exempt the evidence from the exclusionary rule.

The case revolves around three brothers who purportedly burglarized pharmacies in the Philadelphia area. Law enforcement attached a GPS tracking device to one suspect’s car without a warrant.

Prosecutors appealed the panel’s original decision requiring law enforcement to obtain a warrant before attaching a GPS device to a suspect’s car arguing, “Under the principles announced by the Supreme Court, the panel’s decision unjustifiably applies the ‘massive remedy’ of suppressing reliable and probative evidence without achieving appreciable deterrence.”